What the Color of Your Snot Is Trying to Tell You

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It's no fun catching a cold. The dreaded nausea, the endless coughing and sneezing, and the countless piles of mucus-filled Kleenex by your bed. Mucus may not be the prettiest thing your body produces, but it serves an important role in your body.

And although it may seem like you produce more mucus when you're sick, you produce and swallow 1.5 liters of mucus daily and you don't even notice it. This is due to the consistency of the mucus.

"Typically, the mucus changes character. It gets thicker," director of the Emory Voice Center and assistant professor of otolaryngology at Emory University Michael M. Johns III, MD told WedMD. "When it has mass effect you feel it, and when you feel it, you want to hock."

When your snot begins to thicken and change colors, here is what's going on in your body demonstrated through infographics from Tech Insider.

1. Clear snot

You're healthy. According to the Cleveland Clinic clear mucus is mostly proteins, antibodies and dissolved salt, which flows down the throat and gets dissolved by your stomach. It's the kind of unexplained mucus that drips down your nose on a really chilly day. It's very thin and slippery and perfectly normal.

2. White snot

This by far is not the worst type of mucus but it does mean that you are congested. You'll find that this mucus is thicker than usual because somewhere in your nasal cavity there are swollen or inflamed tissues that are sucking up the moisture from your mucus, which is causing it to slowly thicken and become cloudy.

4. Green snot

The effect is not much different from white snot. It means that your immune system is at work and that your body is fighting off a bacterial infection. It can also signal a chronic infection of the sinuses.

5. Red/pink snot

This means there is a lot happening in your nasal cavity. It can mean that there is some physical damage to the skin inside the nose that is causing blood to develop. Or, red mucus is an indication that your nasal cavity is irritated and dry, which can be caused by allergies or infection.

6. Brown snot

The brown hue in mucus could be due to dried blood or inhaling dirt, smoke, spice or another contaminant. Coughing up brown mucus could also be a sign that a person has bronchitis, however, it's best to consult a doctor if this happens.